London has been battered by 50mph winds that have felled trees and caused travel chaos. Powerful gusts swept across the capital as the Met Office issued a yellow "be aware" weather alert for most of the country.

The Government is squandering a chance to create tens of thousands of extra jobs from the new High Speed rail line, three London councils said today.

Up to 150,000 jobs in construction and spin-off businesses could be generated by improving the development plans around the key HS2 sites such as the major new interchange station north of Wormwood Scrubs, they claimed.

With thousands of passengers an hour expected to flood through the interchange, the three boroughs say the site could be a goldmine for the area where about half of working age adults are unemployed and parts of the area are in the bottom one per cent most deprived nationally.

But the councils — Hammersmith & Fulham, Westminster City and Kensington and Chelsea — claim bureaucrats see it as “just a railway” rather than a major regeneration project.

Nicholas Botterill, leader of Hammersmith & Fulham council, said: “Government departments need to work more closely with local authorities rather than government silos.”

The £32 billion fast rail link between London and Birmingham and Manchester will see a new generation of trains, reaching speeds of up to 250mph. A third of passengers are expected to change to other road or rail links at the new interchange.

Sir Merrick Cockell, leader of Kensington and Chelsea, said: “If government departments heed our advice... vast swathes of derelict industrial land in one of London’s poorest areas could be transformed.”

A DfT spokesman said: “We are pleased that these London councils recognise the huge regenerative potential of HS2 - providing the opportunity to inject new life into areas surrounding the stations along its route.

“We and HS2 Ltd are already working with the London boroughs and will continue to do so to ensure that the opportunities that HS2 presents are maximised.”